James' initial research and passion for product development led to the first commercially available tool for creating hybrid neural/expert AI systems, called NueX.
Released in 1993, Open Sesame! was the world's first personal learning agent for the Apple Macintosh, critically acclaimed and box-shipped to over 35,000 users. It used neural networks to identify user behavior patterns and symbolic expert systems to interpret the patterns and generate personalized rules to automate tasks, making it a first-generation hybrid neuro-symbolic AI. In 1994, James received the NASA Top 10 Success Story award for the commercialization of Open Sesame!
Based on extensive user feedback from Open Sesame! 1.0 and deployment challenges from Open Sesame! 2.0, lessons were learned that led to the development of the Learn Sesame intelligence engine, which utilized statistical event clustering over traditional neural network methods.
Independently continuing his doctoral research, James M. Mazzu created a novel self-organizing architecture for symbolic knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR) that captures knowledge by semantic understanding. The resulting multi-agent platform, named Digie, builds user knowledge and insights through natural conversation, applies expert insights/advice based on personal situations, and manages the sharing of knowledge between trusted friends. Digie enables a network of personal AI agents, and was initially applied to the travel domain.
With the arrival of highly effective LLM systems such as GPT, Digie's symbolic AI now leverages complementary neural network capabilities for personal knowledge capture and multi-agent domain knowledge access, making it one of the first 2nd generation hybrid neuro-symbolic AI systems. Digie's unique hybrid multi-agent capabilities provide a truly personal AI experience that enables specialized AI channels from faith-based dialogues to crafting personal travel experiences.
Leveraging this unique platform, our AI Experience Architects continue to define the future of intelligent digital experiences that combine the benefits of both cognitive and graphic interfaces.